Empire of Shadows

Our

You can buy coins here to unlock advanced chapters: https://gravitytales.com/coins-purchase-page/

“I’m an outsider?”

When Eric heard this sentence, he laughed out loud. “My… uncle is the mayor, and I’m an outsider?”

His few little followers also laughed heartily, as if it were indeed a hilarious matter.

But as he laughed, he stopped laughing.

The little followers also couldn’t laugh anymore, looking awkward.

For characters like them, the most annoying and disliked thing is to have a moody “master.” You never know if he’s laughing or angry, just like right now.

Everyone was very awkward.

However happy they were laughing just now was how awkward they were now, afraid that Eric would suddenly ask, “What are you laughing at?”But right now, Eric’s focus wasn’t on this. This “rumor” was aimed at him, he was very clear about this, and the rumor had now isolated him.

People were saying that if Shayna, the flower of Golden Port’s opera, was picked by an outsider like him, it would be a disgrace to the younger generation of Golden Port!

This also led the local forces of Golden Port to unite, a rare occurrence, in the matter of pursuing Shayna.

Originally, everyone pursued Shayna based on their own abilities, but now several young men had been selected to concentrate their efforts on first winning Shayna, this flower of Golden Port opera.

He wanted to destroy something; he was very angry right now.

In the past few days, he could clearly feel that he was being targeted.

He sent a truckload of flowers, and they sent two.

He sent a pearl necklace, and they sent a whole set of pearl jewelry.

Don’t say that pearl jewelry isn’t valuable. When pearls reach the “jewelry” level, they are also very precious and valuable.

These people were making it clear that they just wouldn’t let him succeed. They had to one-up him in everything, making him feel uncomfortable.

Shayna, who originally seemed to be a little interested in him, had suddenly become reserved again. She even rejected his invitation to dinner; in the past, she would sometimes agree.

In short, he had clearly seen a little opportunity, and now it was extinguished again. He hated these people who spread rumors!

And this group of people who followed along with the commotion.

He knew this was jealousy, at least that’s what he thought, because he was the mayor’s family’s “little young master,” and they were not.

They were jealous of his special status, jealous of his mayor uncle’s power, jealous of many things, so they targeted him.

Because he was too outstanding.

But he was still so angry!

“The mayor asks you to make a trip, Young Master Eric,” the old butler appeared silently outside Eric’s room. Eric, who was sulking, glanced over and quickly reined in his temper.

This old butler was the mayor’s clan uncle, which also made him Eric’s clan grand-uncle. Both his status and his importance by the mayor’s side crushed Eric.

“Okay, I’ll go over right away…”

The old butler smiled and turned to leave.

Of course, he saw Eric’s impotent rage, but he wouldn’t say anything about such matters.

Today, it was his mayor uncle who had called him over. Actually, Eric had also heard those rumors, saying that he was actually the product of his mother and the mayor violating moral ethics.

But he didn’t care about these rumors at all. So what if it was true?

And he faintly hoped that it was true.

Because everything he possessed now was built on the foundation of him being the mayor’s illegitimate son. If one day someone proved that he was not the mayor’s illegitimate son, everything would end.

So he desired for all of this to be true more than anyone else. Only if it was true could he forever enjoy everything that the mayor’s power brought.

Wealth, status, privilege!

He soon arrived outside the mayor’s office. The mayor also had an office in his own manor. He stood at the door and knocked.

Before he was allowed to use the address “Dad,” he had to abide by all the rules here.

“Come in.”

He pushed the door open and entered. The first thing he saw was the mayor’s personal secretary, a very young man about his age. He was his mayor uncle’s very important assistant and was also nice to him.

The two smiled at each other face to face. The secretary gave him an affirmative look, which was to tell him that the mayor was in a good mood now and there was no need to worry.

This was a special tacit understanding between people of the same age.

Eric responded appropriately to the secretary’s kindness. He had some of the arrogance of a master, so he acted very reserved.

After the secretary left, he came to the middle of the office and stood there, looking down at the tips of his shoes. “Uncle, Grandpa Butler said you were looking for me.”

The mayor rubbed his wrists. The few party representatives had already gone back yesterday. He had arranged for someone to see them off, along with some local specialties from Golden Port.

The political affairs that had piled up over the past two days suddenly exploded. He had been dealing with them from morning to night, including today, a weekend, working from home.

He picked up his black tea cup and took a sip. Eric quickly went to bring the teapot that was being kept warm on an alcohol stove, poured out the not-so-cold tea in the cup, and replaced it with hot tea.

Seeing Eric’s filial appearance, the corners of the mayor’s mouth curled up, but he quickly suppressed it.

This small action made Eric’s mood brighten. So what if Shayna didn’t end up being his wife?

When his mayor uncle became a big shot in the state government, there would be plenty of women who wanted to climb into his bed.

“I heard recently that you and those young people have caused quite a stir?”

Eric was stunned at first, then a little worried. He said cautiously, “I didn’t expect it to disturb you. I am pursuing a female opera singer named Shayna. I don’t know who said that if I succeed in winning her over, it would be a disgrace to our peers in Golden Port.”

“Now they are targeting me every day. I was already planning to give up competing with them.”

“Give up?” the mayor asked in a very relaxed tone. “Why give up?”

This rhetorical question stunned Eric for a moment. “Because… because will this affect Uncle’s work?”

He was very sincere at this moment. “I don’t want to affect Uncle’s work and create any misunderstandings because of some matters in my private life.”

The mayor’s smiling appearance was not at all as serious as rumored by outsiders. “This is no longer just your own business, Eric.”

He stood up, a rare action. Most of the time, he would not stand up when talking to Eric, because it would be over in a few sentences.

He wouldn’t lecture Eric, just tell him what to do and what not to do. So for Eric, this was also a new experience.

The mayor walked to the window. It was not far from March, and the temperature had already returned to above zero. He opened the window.

Although it was bitingly cold outside, the fresh, cold air filled with hidden vitality blew in, blowing away the laziness brought by the warmth and invigorating people.

He took out a cigarette. Eric quickly took out his sterling silver lighter and lit it for the mayor.

“This is no longer a contest between you and those young people, Eric. It’s a contest between the locals and the outsiders. Do you understand what I mean?”

Eric was initially still immersed in the feeling of “Mayor Dad is being nicer to me.” He was dazed for a moment before he reacted to the meaning of this sentence. “You mean, they are demonstrating against you?”

This was the only thing he could think of.

The mayor nodded. “They have actually opposed my proposals from the very beginning, but they couldn’t due to some pressure.”

“Two years have passed, and they want to test the waters again.”

Originally, the city’s development plan did not include the New Port District.

Even now, the New Port District has not been truly incorporated into the “Golden Port City Administrative Plan.” It doesn’t even have a “district” on the map.

It is only referred to as the “New Port Docks.”

Its location is at the westernmost end of the Port District, close to the Industrial District. There is a large open space there and a deep-water port that is no less impressive than the Golden Port Docks.

The rich people in the Bay Area have invested too much in the Golden Port Docks. If a new port district were to be developed now, it would undoubtedly have a certain impact on the Golden Port Docks.

If nothing else, just the utilization rate of the docks would decrease, which would reduce the income of the rich people in the Bay Area by a lot.

The “New Bay Area” of a few years ago was said to be a joke to the public, but it was actually a probe by the mayor. He wanted to know if anyone in the local high society was on his side.

However, he failed. The local high society was very tightly knit and very resistant to his ideas, so the development of the New Port District slowed down.

To this day, the New Port District only has four docks, one of which is still under construction, facing great resistance.

In fact, from the perspective of historical development, developing the New Port District is the best choice. The seven docks of Golden Port are beginning to become saturated, with a utilization rate of eighty percent.

With the rapid development of various levels in countries around the world, Golden Port will definitely have to undertake heavier central dispatching work in the future. Building new docks is imperative.

Moreover, building a new port that is bound to shine in the future will bring the mayor political returns and benefits far greater than what he could get by maintaining the status quo and developing some Beach District or Valley District.

But for the current rich people, they are still enjoying the rich returns from past investments. Suddenly asking them to invest a large amount of money in the New Port Docks again, they are not too willing.

The old port isn’t even at full capacity yet, and you’re already thinking about a new port. Isn’t that just using our money to embellish his political achievements?

Even though they were also very clear that this might be something that had to be done in the future, they didn’t want to do it now.

Some contradictions, some conflicts, eventually became an opposition. Once it entered an ideological opposition, many things were no longer about whether it was reasonable or not, but only about which side you were on.

After the mayor learned about the recent rumors targeting Eric, he felt that it might be a provocation, a probe against him.

Coming right after Mike and the other party representatives had just left, if this trend picked up, it would be hard to say whether those representatives would still consider him a capable person.

A capable person can’t even handle his own jurisdiction. You call that capable?

He turned to look at Eric. “You’re all young people. You need to have some guts, go and fight for it.”

“It’s best if you win, but it doesn’t matter if you lose!”

Eric was instantly filled with drive. Dad is so good to me!

He quickly expressed his stance, “I know what to do!”

(End of this chapter)

***

Additional chapters: /caleredhair